Season 8
|episodes=22 |premiere=Odyssey |finale= |previous=Season 7 |next=Season 9 |previous2= Season 7 |next2= Season 9] }} The eighth season of began airing on September 18, 2008, on The CW television network, and concluded its initial airing on May 14, 2009 with 22 episodes. Summary This season began a few weeks after the ' icy collapse, as new executive investigated 's whereabouts. With Lex out of the way, had to face two new foes: Tess Mercer and . Tess proved to be as inscrutable as she is cunning, and became an enigmatic new presence in everyone's lives. It wasn't long before Tess' attention turned to Clark. This season, moved closer than ever to embracing as the iconic superhero he will become. Spending less time in his hometown and more time in the big city of , Clark came across a multitude of DC characters (including ; the Legion of Super-Heroes; Winslow Schott; ; and more) as he began his career at the working opposite . With Clark and Lois thrust into such close proximity, sparks began to fly and feelings started to surface that came as a surprise to both of them. At the same time, Clark began to realize the balancing act he must perform as he explored his dual identities as both reporter and superhero. Clark soon discovered he wasn't the only on , as the "Ultimate Destroyer" threatened the human race. Clark was not alone in facing formidable challenges this season. found himself at a crossroads, forced to travel through some dark terrain – especially when demons from his past were reawakened. Oliver ultimately began to question his role as a superhero, just as Clark was embracing his own. After 's attack on at the end of last season, she developed new abilities, which she hid from Jimmy Olsen. She accepted Jimmy's marriage proposal but became surprisingly open to a new acquaintance, . Davis and Chloe quickly developed a friendship, but it soon became clear that he had a secret of his own. Trying to juggle her new career at the , planning a wedding, her growing relationship with Davis, her Brainiac infection, and her ongoing commitment to Clark, Chloe had her hands full this year. returned after she was freed from the and went in search of , the lost city from . also returned to Smallville to finally complete her revenge on by stealing his last life-line, a power-suit. Lana's return was short-lived when Lex forced Clark and Lana to part for good by contaminating her with . Lex was then killed by Oliver, but Lex's knowledge of Clark was passed on to Tess through a series of journals. Jimmy made it his mission to investigate Metropolis' newest mysterious hero, whom he nicknamed "the Red-Blue Blur," and came dangerously close to unearthing Clark's secret while simultaneously planning his wedding to Chloe. As he thought his life was coming together, everything was ripped apart by Doomsday and Jimmy was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. As he recovered from his attack, he became addicted to drugs and soon ended up facing the beast for a second time. As the , Chloe, Tess, Jimmy and Clark tried to overcome Doomsday in their own ways, the lives of everyone hung in the balance, especially as Doomsday's defeat was linked to the Orb. The orb convinced Tess that she would be the savior of Kandor. However, it soon released something more ominous, a naked man appeared surrounded by the symbol of Zod burned into the ground, posing a new threat in Clark's future. Opening Credits The Season 8 credits mostly include footage from seasons 4-7, and the Season 8 episodes Odyssey, and Instinct. The credits for each episode include the following: Recurring Characters The following Recurring Characters appear in more than one episode this season: *George (5) * (5) * (5) *Eva Greer (4) *John Jones/Martian Manhunter (3) *Regan Matthews (3) *Tess' Assistant (3) * (3) *Lex Luthor (3) * (3) *Dinah Lance/Black Canary II (2) *Kat (2) *Bette Sans Souci/Plastique (2) *Colin (2) *Edward Groll (2) *Jesse Watts (2) *Rokk Krinn/Cosmic Boy (2) *Randall Brady (2) Recurring Locations * ** *** *** *** ** ** *** ** * ** *** *** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Phone Booth * * * Arctic Circle ** Episode List: 2008-2009 * Odyssey - Ep. 801 (#153 in total): The , led by the , hits the Arctic in search of , who disappeared after the collapsed. The team immediately has a confrontation with the new CEO of , . Meanwhile, is being held prisoner by a suspicious group who has discovered she has a new power, and Clark has been stripped of his powers by Jor-El. * - Ep. 802 (#154 in total): It's 's first day at the with , and the pair are immediately thrown together on a story when a bus explodes outside the office. Clark rescues Bette, a young girl who bonds with Chloe over their shared meteor abilities, but Bette is hiding a big secret. Paramedic arrives in and is drawn to . * Toxic - Ep. 803 (#155 in total): collapses at a charity event and reveals he only has 12 hours to live. and call for help. Delirious, Oliver flashes back to when he was stranded on an island and first learned how to use a bow and arrow. He also recalls meeting on the island after she had been kidnapped by a drug runner. Meanwhile, Chloe decides to use her new powers to help save Oliver, shocking . * Instinct - Ep. 804 (#156 in total): and her team perform tests on Clark's crystal that she had retrieved from the Arctic, which attracts Maxima, queen of planet Almerac, to Earth to search for her Kryptonian soulmate. Unfortunately, Maxima's power is too great for mortal men and her kiss kills them. The seductive Maxima begins her search, starting with . * Committed - Ep. 805 (#157 in total): and are abducted by a psychotic jeweler who was emotionally scarred by his wife's infidelity and is now kidnapping couples and subjecting them to a -enhanced lie detector that shocks them if they lie. The abductor asks Chloe if she is in love with anyone else. Meanwhile, in an effort to find Chloe and Jimmy, and pose as a couple and are kidnapped themselves, then asked how they feel about each other. * Prey - Ep. 806 (#158 in total): investigates a recent attack that may be the work of a serial killer. Suspecting it could be a meteor-freak, he demands that release the names of members of the , which causes a rift between the friends. fears that his blackouts could mean that he is the serial killer and collects evidence that may implicate him. Fearing the worst, he confesses his suspicions to . * Instinct - Ep. 807 (#159 in total): snaps a picture of super-speeding to save from a mugger and manages to catch a red and blue blur on film. Jimmy shows it to who decides to run it on the front page of the Daily Planet. Clark fears his identity will be discovered so he asks to run interference with Jimmy, but she has a better idea. * Bloodline - Ep. 808 (#160 in total): receives an anonymous package containing the crystal that Tess found in the Arctic. When he removes the crystal, it activates and sends him and a visiting Lois to the Phantom Zone where they run into . Kara opens a portal for Lois to return but Zod's wife escapes with her and takes over Lois' body. A possessed Lois goes on a rampage in . * Abyss - Ep. 809 (#161 in total): begins removing 's memories one by one until the only person she remembers is . realizes the only way to stop Brainiac from taking over Chloe's mind is to rebuild the Fortress of Solitude and ask to heal her. * Bride - Ep. 810 (#162 in total): is excited that she's marrying . Meanwhile, tells he thinks he's discovered where is hiding and takes off to Cuba to confront him. However, when he arrives, Oliver is shocked to find instead. Clark and grow closer but chaos ensues when crashes the wedding and tries to kidnap Chloe. * - Ep. 811 (#163 in total): The aftermath of 's attack on and 's wedding leaves in shock, but before he can search for the kidnapped Chloe, The Persuader appears and attacks him. , and Garth, also known as The , step in from the future to help vanquish the Persuader and the group realizes Brainiac has taken over Chloe once again. Meanwhile, up at the Fortress, Chloe, as , informs he is Doomsday and was created to kill “the other Kryptonian” and destroy the world. * Bulletproof - Ep. 812 (#164 in total): discovers was shot while working as a police officer, so Clark dons the uniform and goes undercover to find the culprit. Meanwhile, confronts and tells her isn’t the man she thinks he is. Lana’s shocking news forces Tess to reevaluate her position as the head of . * Power - Ep. 813 (#165 in total): finds in 's ransacked apartment and realizes Lana is missing. Tess tells him is still alive and may have kidnapped Lana and finally reveals the truth about what happened to Lana after she awoke from her -induced coma. Meanwhile, Tess breaks into a secret facility and is shocked at what she discovers. * Requiem - Ep. 814 (#166 in total): An explosion at kills all the Board members and injures , who was there to announce the merger of his company with LuthorCorp. Oliver believes that is responsible for the blast, but and learn that the bomber is , a toymaker and former employee with a grudge against Oliver. * Infamous - Ep. 815 (#167 in total): returns to and threatens to expose ’s secret unless he promises to give her exclusive information on the Red-Blue Blur so she can become a star reporter again. Refusing to be blackmailed, Clark tells Lois his secret and asks her to write his story for the . * Turbulence - Ep. 816 (#168 in total): invites to a press conference out of town but when an explosion rocks the private jet they are on, Clark must figure out how to save them without Tess learning his secret. Unbeknownst to Clark, Tess orchestrated the explosion to get Clark to reveal his powers. Meanwhile, discovers a surprising way to control the monster within. * Hex - Ep. 817 (#169 in total): At 's birthday party, a mysterious magician named grants Chloe's wish to be more like by turning her into Lois for the day. Zatanna asks for help to get her father’s book of spells so she can conjure up his spirit but not before also granting his deepest wish. * Eternal - Ep. 818 (#170 in total): tries and fails to kill . In order to try and explain his destiny, she captures him and unveils his past with the . Meanwhile, and discover Davis' secret. * - Ep. 819 (#171 in total): believes that she needs a big story to secure her reputation as a star reporter but the Red-Blue Blur continues to elude her. After is mugged, Lois uses the opportunity to pretend a new superhero, Stiletto, has come to town and is giving exclusives to Lois. is concerned Lois will hurt herself pretending to be a superhero but after he is captured by thugs with , Lois saves the day. * Beast - Ep. 820 (#172 in total): discovers that is still alive and confronts about protecting him. discovers breaking into Chloe’s apartment, but things get rapidly worse after Davis jumps from the shadows and attacks both of them. Later, Clark and Davis meet in the fortress and end up fighting each other. * Injustice - Ep. 821 (#173 in total): returns and begs to kill , claiming that Davis can no longer keep the beast under control. has assembled a team of meteor freaks, including Plastique, to track down Davis so Clark can kill him. However, things get out of hand once Tess’ team discovers she is double-crossing them. * - Ep. 822 (#174 in total): tells he must kill , as is a serious threat and must be stopped at all costs. However, Clark struggles with taking a human life, so the Green Arrow and his team decide to take matters into their own hands. takes on , but the fight takes a shocking turn. Meanwhile, takes matters into her own hands by using to separate Davis and Doomsday but Davis' human side proves to be just as evil as he and kill each other. Cast *This is only the second season (along with ) to have only seven main cast members, including: , , , , , , and . All the other previous seasons had 8 cast members. *With the departure of four regular cast members from , and the addition of three (Freeman, Witwer, and Hartley), this represents the biggest cast turnover in all of the series. , , and are no longer regular characters. This is the first season in which and are not series regulars (moving up to second billing). This also left only two remaining original cast members since the first episode of the series (Welling and Mack). *Season 8 has a significant change in the number of appearances of its main cast. This is likely due to the rumored budget cuts. Previous seasons had the four lead characters; Clark, Lana, Lex and Chloe, appear in most if not all of the episodes, whereas secondary characters appear in anything from 13-22 episodes. However, as of this season, only Tom Welling and Allison Mack were contracted to appear in all episodes, while the remainder of the cast only appeared in 12-13 episodes, although Aaron's twelfth appearance in "Hex" was cut (something which also happened to him in "Traveler" in the previous season). *Despite leaving the show as a regular cast member, returned for five episodes starting with "Bride" and ending with "Requiem". These were her final appearances on . *Two new antagonists joined the cast: played by Cassidy Freeman and aka played by Sam Witwer. Davis Bloome was written out of the series by the end of the season as he was killed after he was separated from his persona by . *Justin Hartley reprised his role as / but this time he was promoted to series regular. *Despite Laura Vandervoort not being a main cast member this season, she returned as a guest star in "Bloodline". *This is the first season which shows Lois Lane's hair color change from dirty-blonde to brown. *James Marsters expressed interest in more appearances as . However, to continue the storyline of Brainiac the producers explored the result of his confrontation with Chloe in "Arctic", which resulted in her receiving his powers as he slowly took possession of her. This storyline was an ongoing theme in the first 8 episodes, but took focus in "Abyss" and was used as a mid-season finale in "Bride". It concluded in " " with Brainiac being sent to the future. Despite Allison Mack being used to represent Brainiac as Chloe, Marsters reprised his role as the voice of Brainiac in "Abyss", but was uncredited. He would return in Homecoming for his final appearance (as . *This season featured the most recurring appearances of Justice League members with Alan Ritchson and Alaina Huffman reprising their roles in this season's premiere as and respectively. Alaina Huffman also reappeared for the season finale " ", along with Kyle Gallner as . *Despite Michael Rosenbaum's departure, Lex remained very present in the show with Tess carrying out his orders for the first half of the season. He also reappears in "Bride", as a silent, obscured character (explained by his injuries sustained after the Fortress of Solitude collapsed in "Arctic") and is apparently killed at the end of "Requiem". However, none of Lex's appearances in this season are played by Michael Rosenbaum. *This was Aaron Ashmore's last season as a main cast member as was killed in the season finale. *As of , every main character except knows Clark's secret. *Allison Mack appeared in all 22 episodes this season, but the character did not appear in "Injustice". * Kara and Lana are the only two former main characters to appear in Season 8. Notes *Miles Millar and Alfred Gough left Smallville at the end of and had no involvement with season 8. Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer, Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson took over as Executive Producers after writing or producing for the show since . *From the first episode of season 8, Clark and Chloe are the only characters to appear as main cast members in every season, although Clark is the only one to appear in every episode. *With 's guest appearances this year, she is the third character to appear in every season from up to . * and both portray three different characters this season. Allison plays Chloe, Brainiac possessing Chloe's body, and Eva Greer disguised as Chloe. Erica plays Lois, possessing Lois' body, and Chloe who has been transformed into Lois. * made her directing debut in episode 13, "Power". Due to the writer's strike, she was unable to direct any episodes last season. *In an annual fashion, directed "Injustice", his fourth time directing an episode after "Fragile", "Hydro", and " ". He was originally set to direct "Hex" but this was re-scheduled due to him being ill during the time he was given to prepare. *There are sixteen DC Comics characters that appear for the first time in this season, making a record: ; Bette Sans Souci/Plastique; ; ; Persuader; the three founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes: Rokk Krinn/Cosmic Boy, Imra Ardeen/Saturn Girl, and Garth Ranzz/Lightning Lad; Dan Turpin; ; Winslow Schott/Toyman; ; Bruno Mannheim; a proto-Injustice League featuring Bette Sans Souci/Plastique, Rudy Jones/Parasite, Leslie Willis/Livewire and Nathaniel Tyron/Neutron; and . * apparently died three times this season; in the alternate reality when she discovered Davis was , in 's drug-induced hallucination where he saw Doomsday killing her, and when triggered the explosive chip in her head, however it was actually Eva Greer who had shape-shifted into the form of Chloe. *Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin left the series after this season. *Black kryptonite reappears for the first time since . *This the first season since that hasn't been used or acknowledged. *Scenes from "Pilot" are shown during "Eternal" with a new perspective, as it is revealed also fell to Earth that day. *Chloe and Jimmy get married, which is the third onscreen wedding on the show. The last one being in between Lex and Lana. *This season shows the inside of the Phantom Zone for the second time. *Clark develops a dual identity for the first time, known as the Red-Blue Blur. Lois also tries this with her faux superhero, Stiletto. Meanwhile, Oliver and Davis both struggle with their other identities. Category:Smallville Seasons Category:Seasons